Perfect Bundle

Who's been entertaining, amazing, and inspiring us for a full decade now?

Why, Elinel, of course.

It is late and the Eagles are winning so I won't belabor this point too much except to say that Luke is The Man. His wry humor, his steely determination and his unflinching curiosity make him the most interesting 10-year-old I know. He is the only kid I've ever met who can recite every feature on the 2014 line of Range Rovers, or who can give you the whole IMDB rundown on every movie he sees.

He has more self-discipline than most kids twice his age; he does daily situps, pushups, and pullups; he heads out on long runs with Dave whenever possible; he chooses healthy foods and is opening his mind to new foods daily. Amazingly, he's become an incredible climber in the last three months and he is itching to try out his new skills on some real rocks on a future camping trip.

People say he looks like Dave and I can see it now: the almond eyes, the winning smile, and the lean physique. When I think of him, my heart practically pops out of my chest, cartoon-style, swelling with pride and admiration. Such a good, sweet kid.

Happy birthday, my 10-year-old boy. I love you.

Ring In the New

Seventeen years ago, I spent the first Thanksgiving away from home. (Hard to believe, I had spent every Thanksgiving at home until I was 28 years old.) That year, I headed out to Palm Springs to be with this new guy and his family. At the time, I was still contemplating my next move. But Palm Springs in November...that was a pretty nice selling point. He definitely had me there.

This year we headed out to the desert on the weekend before Thanksgiving and we traveled with two boys, four suitcases, two iPads, two iPhones, two MacBooks, and an iTouch. We left one cat behind. More complicated? Sure. But some things remain the same: The In-n-Out Burger stop in Moreno Valley. The deep, cleansing breaths you take as soon as the wind turbines come into view. The twinkly lights on all of the palm trees once you roll into town.

This time, we were far enough out in the desert (Rancho Mirage) that Dave was determined to take the boys on a big off-the-beaten-path hike on Saturday. When you put the word "big" next to the word "hike" my brain starts getting sour and cranky, so I opted out for the day. Instead I rented a car and headed to the outlet center for some hard-core shopping (some things never change; to each her own). Little did I know the treacherous conditions that the boys would face at "Ladder Canyon."

Fortunately, it was one of those things that I only had a chance to worry about after the fact, so everyone was fine and had a great time doing their respective things. I suppose to some people fighting the crowds at the Coach outlet is a lot scarier.

We've worked our way through a lot of restaurants in the desert, but one that remains the same is the Japanese teppan steakhouse that provides us endless hours of entertainment. After years of going there, we thought we had seen all of the tricks, until - surprise! - this time we had a new young chef who wowed us with all sorts of dazzling knife-and-fork feats. We were seated at the table with a bunch of happy-drunk Canadian golfers, and although they were not offensive in any way, at least one of them was self-conscious enough about being drunk (those Canadians!) that he insisted on slipping Dave $60 before they left as an "apology."

Standing at the koi pond outside Kobe

Riding on a little high from our newfound wad of cash (!), we headed up to El Paseo in Palm Desert, the Rodeo Drive of the desert. It was our good fortune that they had just finished the holiday decorating and they had a full-on "snowstorm" (big frothy bits of soap) in the middle of the street - making it the closest we would get to "cold" weather all week.

The next morning the sun was out, which meant it was time to dash over to Splashtopia, the massive water park at our resort. We didn't waste any time jumping right in to the lazy river and waterslides.

How many calories do you burn per hour on the lazy river? Because I could do that all day.

Anyway, it was somewhere around this point that I called my parents and then started to feel bad. They were out there suffering through a deep chill, while we were lounging around in the sun. But when you move across the country away from your family, you pay the price all the time. So you've got to have at least a few perks built in to make it fun, right?

Luke did a big report this semester on Palm Springs, so we headed downtown on Sunday night for a fancy dinner at LG's Steakhouse. (Quote from Luke's report: "If you stay in L.A., you can go to McDonald's. But if you go to Palm Springs, you can have a nice, juicy steak at LG's Steakhouse.") In honor of his report, we enjoyed a nice, juicy steak at LG's Steakhouse.

Every time we go somewhere, the boys always have such a good time that they insist that we HAVE to go back again REALLY SOON. We take this with a grain of salt, because vacation is fun. But there's something about the desert that it's just a given - Of COURSE you are going to go back soon. Because it's the desert, and that's what we do, year after year.

These girls

We LOVE these girls. Did I mention that we love these girls?

We are basically a boy-driven house, so when girls enter the picture it's a whole new ball game. Fashion. Nail polish. Taylor Swift. But somehow when it's coming from Helena and Antonia, they mix it in with their own brand of tomboy-ish-ness and it's cool - even fun - for the boys.

In fact, even though Antonia is just on the cusp of teenager-hood, she's still happy to mix it up with the rest of them...and she has earned Luke's ongoing admiration as an all-knowing arbiter of music and tween trends.

Now answer this question: If these four went down to the beach, fully clothed, without towels, which two do you think would be most likely to run in the water without abandon and get completely soaked from head to toe?

If you answered Zach and Helena, of course you are right. These two are living life without a care in the world, and loving every sopping wet minute of it.

On Sunday we brought our whole motley crew (plus Elizabeth, plus Luke's buddy Sean) up to the cliffside rocky beach for some hiking and exploring. True, it wasn't quite up to par with Julie and Eric's traditionally hard-core hikes. And true, Sean's survivalist gear was just a little bit more than we needed for this particular adventure. Nevertheless, a good time was still had by all - and at the very end we were rewarded with some dolphin sightings just off the coast.

Sunday night Elizabeth served us dinner on her pretty beachside patio. We also got treated to a concert from our young musicians...ranging from just a few notes on the trumpet (Luke) to a simple melody on the clarinet (Helena) to a full-blown concert-worthy flute recital from Antonia.

Monday the bigger kids went to the rock climbing gym (Luke's new favorite activity, which the girls were only too happy to join in) while Zach went to a birthday party. By the late afternoon we were all back together and the group unanimously voted to head back to the beach - albeit this time stocked with towels and swim suits.

Can you make out these four tiny blips in the water? They're all in there, happy as clams. My main wish for these four is that they continue to love their time together.

Guy Fawkes Day

I'm late for Halloween but let's just pretend we dressed up for Guy Fawkes Day instead (or at least Dave did).

How would you feel about running into this guy on the road?

Rocky road

One of my volunteer jobs at school is to be the Monday reading companion in Zach's class. Each kid takes a turn and comes and read a book aloud to me. It's great practice for the kid and it's great fun to me to hang out with each kid individually. There's a whole range of reading skills in the class, and Zach is probably among the most proficient. But I have to tell you what is different about Zach. While all of the other kids can read the words, and some can put some expression into the words, there's no one who reads with quite as much...relish as Zach. As he sits down with this enormous grin on his face, he's got so much anticipation it's like he's preparing to eat an enormous feast. He reads well enough, but what sets him apart is just how much he is absolutely loving the story itself. And to me that's the beauty of reading - it's not just that he's technically capable, it's that he really, truly enjoys it.

This week's book was some kind of silly cat story, and by the time it was his turn to read, he couldn't wait to tell me about it. We read a few pages with him cracking himself up along the way, and then he stopped so he could turn to a different chapter and read me a part that he thought was especially funny. He was practically falling off the chair he was laughing so hard while he was reading it. Maybe it's just being with his mom. Maybe he was especially silly that day. But I can tell you at least for that day, there was no single kid in the class that got as much of a kick out of their book as Zach did.

Luke is, for lack of a better word, a classic tween. Every day is an adventure in grappling with big-kid emotions and anxieties, while savoring the little-kid joys. He loves playing soccer, but he's frustrated with himself for not having scored a goal yet. He's gone to some Dodger playoff games with Dave, and the teacher complimented him for how maturely he handled his homework on those nights. Yet on another day he completely forgot about a social studies test he had so he never studied for it...and still got an A-. He's fascinated by Bear Grylls and is counting the days until we can go camping. He's frustrated by a report he has to do on Palm Springs. He's laughing his head off at funny Family Feud bloopers. He's obsessed with getting a "six-pack" so he does 100 situps every morning and night. He sails through his 4:30 swim lesson and then begins a steady downhill slide as we work our way home, so that by 6:00 as dinner is ready, he's pale and listless from lack of food. He's growing in leaps and bounds right before our eyes.

There are two very distinct kid personalities in our house, and many days I wonder how they can ever coexist peacefully. To be honest, most of the time they don't. But every now and then we find the right thing to get them both happy and sharing the same cause. More often than not, the answer is rocks.

That's right, rocks. Cranky kids? Fighting kids? Take them to a rocky beach and all troubles are forgotten. For as long as they last, we will be grateful for those simple joys.

Just one friend

"Luke, do you ever see Zach on the playground at lunch?"
Luke pauses over his snack. "Yeah. He's in a gang."
"A gang?!?"
"Yeah. It's kind of like a hippie gang."
"A hippie gang?!?"
"Right. It's a bunch of long-haired kids. They all hang out behind a bush and sing songs like 'It's a Small World' and throw stuff at people."

After checking in with Zach and a few well-placed sources, I learn that only about 60 percent of this story is true. True: hanging with some other kids who all happen to have long-ish hair. True: playing behind bushes. Possibly true: Throwing a Frisbee at Luke and his friends. False: "It's a Small World."

But I'm not worried about the gang thing. Do you know how happy it makes me to hear that he might have a gang? It's as if all of the things we've been working on are coming together. Here is a guy who so desperately wants to make connections with other kids, and now he's actually got more than one friend. This is brilliant.

But as they say, all you really need is just one friend. Yesterday Zach had a play date with his current BFF, Enzo. This morning when he arrived at school, Enzo happened to come up right behind him. Enzo whispered something in his ear and said, "Come on, Zach!" and grabbed his hand and led him down to the playground. They were off without even a glance backwards. It's like, I don't know...having a regular kid?

Luke is lucky; he's always had tons of friends. But even so, some days can be a little challenging. Yesterday he hung out at the playground after school with a handful of buddies. Eventually, the boys all decided to play football, which Luke hates. Luke sat down to me and leaned his head on my shoulder. "I think I'm basically ready to go."

But before we could get up, Luke's pal Shane wandered over. Shane was Luke's best friend in kindergarten and now, even though they've gotten into different things and each have their own group of friends, they're like brothers - in a good way. They've always got each other's back.

"Hey Luke. You wanna go climb that tree with me?"
"Sure."

I watch them walk away and try to imagine them as the kindergarteners they once were, except now they've both got long legs and a distinctly pre-teen saunter. They're so wrapped up in conversation they don't even notice they're walking in perfect lockstep. And then one of them says something that cracks the other up and they're doubled over in laughter. Once they reach the tree, they're up, up, up...and gone.

Just one good friend.

Fanfare

School is in, and we are all struggling to get our routine straight. Example: On the past three Thursdays, our school has had three different dismissal times. No one is quite sure yet when we are supposed to be where. Exacerbating that issue is the fact that our weekends are no longer special times for relaxation; we have been gone and/or busy for 7 out of the last 8 weekends. We are loving all of the adventures that life throws our way, but we don't yet have much of a routine down.

Zach has a complex web of support at school and at home, and he is thriving with all of the attention, and loving first grade. Of course it helps that he is always positive, super-confident, and extremely outgoing. (On the day before school started, he walked right up to the principal, greeted her by name, and gave her a blow-by-blow description of all of our vacations.) Some social interactions are still a little rocky, but he has a few nice new friends, and of course academically he is rising straight to the top. I think it also helps that he is somewhat (I can't believe I am saying this) tall for his age. He had a playdate the other day with a kid who had turned 7 in June, and the boy's mother simply could not believe that Zach wasn't going to turn 7 until next April.

Watching videos with the cat

Luke is having a little roller coaster ride at school - some days he loves it, and some days he hates it. But in general it is a much better year than last year, and we've seen Happy Luke more days than we've seen Sad Luke. Did anyone know he is playing trumpet this year? He's managed to get a few notes out so far, and I think it's only a matter of time before he can serenade us all.

Most people know that I spent the summer in emotional turmoil over the fact that Luke decided to play soccer this year. My issue was that most of the soccer-playing kids spend their summers and off-seasons doing soccer camp and club teams, and I hated the thought of him getting out there after not playing for a year and being at the bottom of the heap. Man, was I wrong. He LOVES it. Loves, loves, loves it. He might not be the best player on the field, but he is out there having the time of his life, and after every game it is hard for him to contain his enthusiasm. "I LOVE this game!" True story: At one of his games the other day he played goalie and one of the shots got right past him and the other team scored. One of the dads on our team yelled out, "It's alright, Luke! With your good looks, you're gonna be a star no matter what!"

Dave is carrying on and working as hard as ever to develop his growing little business. After more than a year of serving clients, we've noticed a trend: The people who love his blog and turn to him because they trust him entirely, seem to be mostly...engineers. He just completed one transaction with perhaps the most difficult client in history (software engineer), and Dave seemed to be the only agent in town who a) understood this guy and b) was able to endure all of his quirks of character throughout the course of the escrow process. Believe it or not, he has more engineer types lined up to work with him. I have to laugh... but truly, anyone who loves and appreciates Dave is OK in my book.

Last week, following parents' night at school, Dave and I took advantage of the all-adult crowd to celebrate my birthday and the start of the school year with a few friends at our local wine bar. Not much more to say on that for now, except that it was absolutely perfect evening and it was a joy to be able to ring in the "new year" with Dave.

Now for the really cool part. I've spent many days, weeks, and months building my blogs and my social media presence. When I applied to be a social media ambassador for Terranea, I thought it was a shot in the dark. When they picked me as one of the top 10 finalists to experience an all-expense-paid weekend, I was completely shocked and humbled. And when I learned about my competition among the top 10, I thought, "I don't have a prayer in the world."

But they put us to work over that weekend, and I worked non-stop, from morning until night, trying to create as impressive an impact as possible. Here's just a sampling of what I did on Saturday: Got a wardrobe makeover, took a yoga class, swam and went down the water slide, hiked four miles, learned about falconry, toured the residential sale properties, watched golf videos, and ate at four restaurants. I was so bone-tired on Saturday night I literally fell asleep at 8:00 pm, only to force myself to wake up again at 10 pm because I wanted to finish a blog post before morning.

All in a day's work

 By Sunday morning, I was positively morose. I wanted to win so badly, but I was exhausted, and I knew I had no chance of winning. Then they made the announcement, and I shuffled back to the room to talk to Dave and the boys. With a long face and a heavy sigh, I told them, "Well, I worked really hard, so that's why it's hard for me to say....I WON!!!!!!!!!"

Total joy, bedlam, and jumping up and down ensued.

I am now proud to be a social media ambassador for Terranea for 2014, which essentially means that I have unlimited free stays there as long as I continue to write and share my experiences. 2014, you'd better be ready for us!

Portland. Ia.

I am completely fascinated by this little phenomenon wherein our little family does something that we think is the best thing EVER and another family can do the same thing and just hate it. In this case, it was Portland. We had the most fun 48 hours in Portland - a total joyride of a weekend - that had us all yearning to go back again. And then we found out that some friends had stayed there earlier in the summer (in the same hotel even) and had a miserable time - they thought it was dirty, ugly, spooky, etc. Huh. I am completely mystified. What's not to love about Portland?

Our weekend of delight started with the train ride down to Portland and the four hours went by in a flash. We enjoyed a tasty lunch in the dining car and then spent a little bit of time in the observation car listening to the National Parks Service volunteers telling us about local history, wildlife, and scenery.

When we got in the cab to go to the hotel, our cab driver happened to mention that Portlandia was filming in a funky little neighborhood northwest of us. Jackpot!!!! We put our stuff down and then headed straight for said neighborhood. We got to see a little bit of filming, plus we enjoyed other local quirks: A nursery/plant store with chickens walking around, a light bulb store with an extensive Lego display in the window, a restaurant devoted solely to mac & cheese, a warehouse with reclaimed building fixtures, and an ice creamery featuring beet/mascarpone ice cream.

Our hotel was also a total delight - even though it was operated by a "chain," it had a wonderful old-time glamour to it. The nightly manager's reception, game room, funky pool, and full-on breakfast were nice touches. The boys swore they never wanted to stay in any other hotel besides this one. Saturday Dave had one item on his agenda - to get to the University of Oregon store. While he and Luke stocked up on green- and O-themed merchandise, Zach and I went to hold a place in the hour-long line for donuts at Voodoo Donuts. Was it worth it? Oh yes. Yes, it was.

Our next stop brought us to the Aerial Tram, which was surprisingly non-scary. It was just a smooth, easy ride to the top and spectacular views.

Then we headed back to the other side of town (all of this is happening on the Metro, of course) to visit the Peculiarium, a museum of weird and ghastly stuff. On the way we were starving so we walked into house-turned-coffee-shop that was furnished with a Dorm Room Circa Late 1990s theme, and ate some enormous sandwiches. Once we got to the Peculiarium, Luke was entirely too freaked out by it, but fortunately there was an old-timey street festival happening just down the block so we spent our time there getting our neighborhood fix.

Blammo! Right in the old-timey dunk tank

That night for dinner we headed to a pizza place in an old hotel that is described as Portland's most haunted place. Given Luke's reaction to the Peculiarium, we didn't bother to tell him about the ghost until after we left. But while the four of us enjoyed pizza in an eerie, dimly-lit corner, Dave and I kept exchanging nervous glances.

Ghostly pizza place

Then, with a full box of leftover pizza in hand, we walked down the dark streets to the waterfront, where large communities of homeless people were congregating. Dave conspicuously placed the pizza box on a bench, made a universal sign of peace in the direction of the homeless people, and walked away. A woman sprinted over to grab the box and within less than a minute there was a little pizza party going on. Quirky? Absolutely. Dirty? Meh. Scary? Not at all. I'm pretty sure we'd all be a lot happier if there were a little more Portland in our lives.

Up in the Left-Hand Corner

Vacation #3 (but who's counting?) for the summer brought us way out to the upper left-hand corner of the country. Going to Seattle means getting to see our beloved girl-cousins...not that the gender matters so much, but it's a great chance for the boys to learn how the "other half" lives (Taylor Swift, makeovers, fashion design, etc....). Fortunately none of this is a barrier to having a great time together. Our trip started with a quick overnight in Seattle, and then we were off on the road to La Push.

First stop: Mike's four-star BBQ restaurant, complete with wall 'o' license plates. Guess who was happy with that?

Of course we had to make the stop at our favorite raspberry/lavender farm. This year the blueberries were in full force, the blackberries were on the downswing, and the raspberries were plentiful but super-ripe. The farmer warned us that if we picked them they wouldn't last for more than a day or two so we'd have to plan on eating them quickly. Well, yeah.

Yield: 9 pounds of raspberries, 8 pounds of blueberries, scattered blackberries.

When we finally reached La Push, the happiest person of all was probably Dave. Let's remember that he works basically 24/7 inside our house, so going anywhere is a big deal for him, but if he gets to immerse himself entirely in nature it's like unwrapping a totally new person. 

Second happiest was probably Luke. Of course he already love, love, loves being with his cousins. But stepping into the cabin, he just couldn't contain his delight. "I'm the happiest person in the world! This is the best place ever! This is the best DAY ever!" OK, so he's found his happy place. Can we make school more like this?

Having been here last year, the kids knew where to find some of their favorite spots.

Then, naturally, we had to make a fire every single night.

La Push also seems to bring out the snuggliness in everyone, especially Zach.

And Zach got some time to hang with his best buddy Eric:

After Julie and Eric and crew left for their camping trip, we were left to our own devices. Our first morning as a foursome we went for an exhilarating guided kayak trip. I wish you could see the beautiful close-up views of the bald eagles and the gentle curves of the Quillayute river, but we were advised against taking any electronic devices that shouldn't get wet. So without pictures, it's almost like it didn't happen. But I did get this wonderful insight from Luke, my co-paddler, when we got super-close to one bald eagle: "I just want to take this memory and seal it up so that I never, never forget it."

The next day we bundled up in all of our rain gear to head to the rain forest. Was it raining? Nope, not a drop. But the Hall of Mosses showed that it must have rained a heck of a lot at some point:

On our last day heading out of La Push (sob!) we meandered our way up to the hot springs and met Julie and Eric there. The kids had a great time in the 70-something-degree pool, but most of us spent the rest of our time between the 100-degree pool and the 104-degree pool.

For the grand finale, we headed back to Seattle and enjoyed our traditional visit to High Five Pie. Fortunately, when we got there (at a yawn-inducing 9 pm), our favorite giant round table was open, so we were able to have our pie...and eat it too.

Next installment: Portland.